Version 1.09

Version 1.09 (also known as Final Demo 1.09) is an outdated version of SRB2, released on September 11th, 2005. Another update to the "Final Demo" series, its original intention was to add new editing features to the game to keep the community occupied while the final version of the game was being developed. However, it quickly grew beyond this goal, and as new features were added, its release was delayed. This led to high anticipation in the community, which was waiting for fixes of several irritating bugs in v1.08.

Upon release, v1.09 was patched twice. The first patch, Version 1.09.1, was given out only as a series of public betas on the SRB2 Message Board. The second patch, Version 1.09.2, was released on January 7th, 2006, and added a few new editing features in addition to bugfixes. Mystic Realm v4.0 was released alongside v1.09, making use of its new features and adding a lot of new content.

Information on v1.09.3 and v1.09.4 is not included in this article, as they are considered significantly different from the original v1.09 release despite appearing to be patches of v1.09; for these versions, see Version 1.09.4.

Features

Single Player

New enemies were added: the Buzz, which appeared in golden and red varieties and replaced the Jetty-Syns used in THZ, and the Pop-up Turret.

Extra Life Monitors now displayed the face of the character nearest to it. Previously, it had displayed a generic "1-Up" logo.

All Special Stages from the previous version except the fifth and seventh (which became the second and fifth stages, respectively) were scrapped and replaced with Special Stages from early betas of Mystic Realm 4.0. Special Stages also no longer used spikeballs as a hazard. The Special Stage Pit sector special was added as a new hazard for the seventh Special Stage; touching the floor immediately gives the player a "Time up!" and aborts the Special Stage.

An early demo of Red Volcano Zone Act 1 was added, but could only be accessed via a secret involving RedXVI, a character included as an easter egg who had last appeared in Demo 4 for an unrelated secret. See the RedXVI page for further details.

The level select unlockable now gave the player all emeralds upon beating the game with all emeralds.

The golf gametype from v1.08 and all traces of the unimplemented Sonic Golf unlockable were removed.

v1.09.2 raised the requirement for the Time Attack unlockable from 6 minutes to 6.5 minutes. However, this change would be reversed in v1.09.4.

Super Sonic

Super Sonic received a proper set of sprites; previously Sonic had only been equipped with a Superman cape when turning Super. At this point, the standing sprites were used for spinning/jumping and floating; proper sprites for these animations would be added in v1.09.4. To reflect the addition of proper sprites, the Super Sonic music was changed from the Superman theme to a placeholder tune; the current Super Sonic music was added later in v1.09.2. Super Sonic's ability to run on water, which had been removed in Demo 4, was re-added. Players could also no longer turn Super with a shield.

In addition to the changes to Super Sonic himself, an eighth Chaos Emerald (colored black) was secretly introduced into the game in this version. However, it originally could not be obtained without cheats or modifying the game – the only ways to obtain this Chaos Emerald in v1.09 to v1.09.2 were either placing it in a map via OBJECTPLACE, or by placing Thing type 427 in a custom map. When the player had all the other 7 Chaos Emeralds and 50 rings as well, double-jumping allowed the player to turn into "Hyper Sonic", a modified version of Super Sonic that would damage all nearby enemies when thokking and had sparkles around him constantly. Unlike in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Hyper Sonic in SRB2 did not change colors.

The next version, v1.09.4, would allow the black Chaos Emerald to be obtained via another secret involving RedXVI, but prevented the player from turning into Hyper Sonic if cheats were used. The black Chaos Emerald and Hyper Sonic were later removed from the game entirely in v2.0.

Multiplayer

Like in previous versions, the multiplayer roster was heavily changed. Stages that were considered subpar were removed, while several new stages were added, some of which had originated from the OLDC.

In Match and derived gametypes, the player's camera now switched to the first-person view by default. A secondary fire key which always shoots red rings was added for these gametypes.

Team Match was added in this version as a team-based variation of Match. Originally, players could choose any skin color to form a team; any players with the same skin color would be in the same team. Alternatively, players could form teams based on their character skin instead – i.e. all players playing as Sonic would be on the "Sonic team", all players playing as Tails would be on the "Tails team", etc. The type of teams that could be formed was determined by the TEAMPLAY console variable. From v2.0 onwards, the gametype was changed to be more like CTF, where there were only Red or Blue teams, and players could no longer form teams based on skin.

Spectators were added to CTF mode in this version (they were later added to the other combative gametypes in v2.0). When players first spawned in a CTF map, they automatically became spectators. At this point, spectators were still regular, visible players with normal controls, but they were invincible and could not interact with other players and Objects. They could choose a team by jumping on the team's base – afterwards they could not become a spectator again until they left the game or the gametype was changed. In v1.09, spectators could not yet respawn, so if they fell into a pit, they would be stuck. The ability to respawn was added in v1.09.2. v1.09.2 also made spectators translucent and intangible to projectiles, though v1.09's behavior could be toggled back on using the SOLIDSPECTATOR console variable.

Additionally in CTF, players could no longer use their double-jump abilities when holding a flag, and the current sprites for the flags were added.

The Chaos multiplayer mode was removed, along with all levels for the gametype. However, it was possible to re-enable Chaos mode in the source code through the CHAOSISNOTDEADYET macro, until v2.1 when all related code was removed. Ice Hockey Zone and the experimental gametype it was made for were also removed in this version.

The Host Game menu was revamped in v1.09. Previously, the level and the gametype could be chosen independently. The gametypes supported by a level were indicated in parentheses next to its name, e.g., "Greenflower Zone Act 1 (CR)" meant that the level supported Coop and Race. However, regardless of what gametypes a map supported, it could be loaded up in any gametype. For v1.09, the level list was moved to the center of the screen. Instead of always showing all levels, it now only showed the levels that supported the currently chosen gametype, preventing levels from being played in unsupported gametypes.

Other

The abilities of the three main characters were modified. Both Sonic's thok and Knuckles' glide were now slower underwater. Tails could now descend faster during flight by pressing the Spin button. Most significantly, Knuckles lost the ability to glide multiple times per jump, but could now strafe while gliding. Knuckles' multi-glide ability later returned exclusively for Adventure mode in v1.09.2.

The Whirlwind Shield1 was added, replacing the Basic Shield. This new shield was colored white instead of blue.

The Liquid Shield was re-colored blue instead of green.

A large portion of new music was added as part of SRB2's soundtrack from this version onwards: Some of the music originally intended for the canned RPG Sonic: Emerald Quest was featured in some of the newly added multiplayer stages. In addition to this, the entire original soundtrack created for Mystic Realm by RedXVI and Arrow was included.

A new date-activated secret was added in this version – starting up the game on April Fools' Day would replace the normal introduction with the introduction from SRB2 TGF, complete with the original graphics and music. This secret was later removed in v2.0, along with all other date-activated secrets.

Development mode, which had been removed in v1.08, was re-added. It was now activated using the DEVMODE command, and was made exclusive to Single Player. The code for a version of development mode that works in netgames (nicknamed "fishcake", after the console variable that activated it in v1.01) is still present in SRB2's source code to this day, but is disabled in the current version of SRB2.

Blue springs were added.

Several new modding features were added in v1.09 and v1.09.2, including new linedef executors and triggers, FOFs that rise when stepped upon by the player, Knuckles-only bustable blocks and the NoReload option for the level header, which allows linedef executors to stay activated when a map is reloaded after the player dies.

1 This shield is known as Jump Shield in-game for this version and all future releases afterwards. However, v1.09's SRB2 manual refers to it as Whirlwind Shield regardless.